Hi,
My OH and kids are on the cusp of sending away their passports to get their visa stickers.
According to our CO they will be given permanent residence visa's straight off as I am a NZ citizen who has been out of the country for more than five years and we have been together for more than five years.(New Immigration Act 2009 change)
The point I am not clear about is activation of the visa's. When I first enquired nearly a year ago I was told by the London call centre that they would need to enter New Zealand within a year to activate in the same way as a Residence Visa. However today our CO says travel to New Zealand is unnecessary for activation.
As it has been ten months since the new Act I was wondering if anyone has experience of this and can confirm the situation either way.
We are hoping the CO is correct as my son still has 2 more years at uni and would obviously prefer to finish his course without having to make an activation trip.